The presence of a little cloud cover during Men’s Qualification today here in Italy provided a blessed relief from the sunshine. We’re never going to complain about sunshine- but, from our skateboarders’ perspective, the clouds removed the only impediment to perfect skating conditions: that exhausting, energy-sapping sunshine.
So, ideal conditions they were indeed- and they allowed for everyone skating to give their best throughout this very, very long day of action.
One of the improvements on the WST for 2025 has been the lowering of the cut-off point for Open Qualification from position 27 (to which 5 pre-seeded were formerly added to create a 32-person Quarterfinal) down to 32, to which 8 pre-seeded are now added to create a field of 40 for Quarters.
This allows more rippers to have an extra bite at the cherry which is welcome, because at this elite level nobody is guaranteed to complete their best run.
In fact, the only downside to the new numbers is that it doesn’t allow me to make a lame Cat Stevens joke about the first cut being the deepest (baby, I know)… but since I suspect that I do that one at every stop, you’re probably over it already.
So everybody wins, there- including the 8 extra skateboarders who get a second shot come Quarterfinals time.
As expected, Brazil’s Gui Khury made light work of qualifying, posting not one but two scores in the 87 range, and seems finals-bound on present form.
Also posting an 80’s score was 114th-ranked 16-year-old Japanese all-rounder Issei Sakurai, who was mightily impressive given that his only previous WST result was an underwhelming 92nd in Dubai. He sailed through courtesy of his opening run.
Further down the leaderboard but no less impressive was Spanish youngster Taiga Gimeno who is already better than he was here 10 months ago; Argentina’s Omar Cocilova who landed three grabless flip trick in a 45-second run; France’s Vincent Matheron put his Marseille experience to use as the only person to really take on skating the spine; and Chile’s likeable Martin Jaque who didn't make the cut, but was delighted with his best run- and deservedly so.
Like Peru’s Brigitte Morales yesterday, Martin was one of those skateboarders identified through the IOC-backed Youth Athlete Development programme, and has noticeably improved year on year.
We will bring you all tomorrow's updates as we know more then, and don’t forget we will be broadcasting live to the world on Saturday and Sunday courtesy of World Skate TV!